HONG KONG - Adapted by Hong Kong Ballet, The Butterfly Lovers, a large-scale ballet, premiered at the Grand Theater of Hong Kong Cultural Center on the evening of Oct 18 to a full house.

At the end of the performance, the audience greeted the creative team with long applause and cheers.

Known as "the Chinese Romeo and Juliet", The Butterfly Lovers is brought to the stage for the first time in the form of ballet in Hong Kong, offering the audience a mesmerizing fusion of the ancient and modern, East and West.

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The widely-known legendary Chinese tragic romance between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai has inspired countless adaptations in opera, music, film, and other art forms.

Hong Kong Ballet's Artistic Director Septime Webre from the United States was deeply moved the first time when he heard The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto and believed it to be a "wonderful subject for a ballet".

Ricky Hu, choreographer-in-residence of Hong Kong Ballet, and his wife, Mai Jingwen, took on the task of creating the adaptation.

"There's a lot of pressure because the story is a classic and the audience has seen so many adaptations," Hu said.

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"The story and music of The Butterfly Lovers have long been deeply ingrained in people's hearts. We're not here to retell the story, but to find a modern way to tell it," Hu said.

While preserving the core story of the drama, they strove to bring innovation and breakthroughs to the dance presentation.

Hu and Mai both come from a background in traditional Chinese dance. In the production of this ballet, they made a bold attempt to combine traditional Chinese dance elements with ballet. They admitted that this posed a significant challenge for the choreographers and the dancers.

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Xuan Cheng, principal dancer of Hong Kong Ballet, played the female leading role in this dance. She has played Juliet at home and abroad. This was the first time she played Zhu Yingtai.

"In my view, Zhu Yingtai was braver than Juliet. Throughout the story, she always tried to take control of her own destiny," Cheng said.

As the highlight of Hong Kong Ballet's 45th anniversary season, The Butterfly Lovers brought together a team of artists from Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and the Chinese mainland, including Oscar-winning designer Tim Yip who handled the set design.

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"Interpreting Chinese stories through ballet has always been an exploration of possibilities for me," he said. "I find it fascinating to navigate between Eastern and Western cultures."

"I have been exploring what else is possible in interpreting Chinese stories with ballet," Yip said, "I find it very interesting to navigate between Chinese and Western cultures."